1. In the space below, describe the stasis at the beginning of BFE. In other words, “Where are we?” “When is it (time, day, and year)?” “Who are the people involved?” “What is the dramatic situation in which the characters find themselves as the play unfolds?” The beginning of the play actually starts with Panny, our main character - a 14 year old Asian-American - , speaking directly to the audience as she sets the scene of what has been going on in her area: several blonde girls have been taken to the desert and molested and/or killed by an unknown man. Panny talks about this as they are people from her high school, specifically the popular, pretty girls.
2. What is the intrusion that causes the stasis to be broken and the dramatic action to develop, often at an increasingly rapid pace, to the end of the play? When Panny first makes conversation with Hugo because this is where we establish a change in Panny’s domenor. She enjoys talking to Hugo, unlike how she speaks with her pen pal or her mother. Besides, if it weren’t for Hugo, Panny may have never run into The Man that day.
3. Why do the events of the play take place at this particular time and place? In other words, what is the unique factor that is out of the ordinary that causes a turn of events to take place? This is the day Panny tells the true story of what happened to her with The Man and the events and people she met leading up to it. As she lists in the beginning, lots of people assumed different things that may have happened that night, but this is the correct version.
4. State the dramatic question or questions that must be answered by the end of the play? (Ordinarily, the dramatic question shares a close connection with the intrusion.) What exactly is going to happen to Panny? What are her end thoughts on her family, everyone’s reaction to the event, and how has, if any, her character changed from the start?
5. Use Panny, Isabelle, or Lefty to answer the questions concerning character. Ball says, a character is revealed by what he/she does, that is the dramatic actions that are taken. Examine what the character wants (NOTE: In Trifles the wants of Ms. Hale change as the play progresses). The wants of a character often encounter obstacles that get in the way of achieving those wants. Ball says there are 4 kinds of obstacles that frustrate the wants of a character.
Me against myself: She faces so much in terms of negative self esteem and lack of motivation that she has resulted to going to cosmetic surgeries to help her feel better as well as being unable to properly care for her kid.
Me against another individual: Lefty in specific is an obstacle be chase he is the sole provider for the family (specifically for her), but wouldn't mind leaving in an instant
Me against society (that is law, social norms, etc.): Isabelle especially faces persecution from society as she doesn't fit into the social norms and expectations of a “normal” mother
Me against fate, the universe, natural forces, God or the gods: Isabelle faces many obstacles in terms of fate. Although it is possibly fate that she run into the pizza guy just as she was fantasizing her Captain, it therefore would also be fate that he was in no way like the gentlemen the she longed for.
6. The most important information in most plays takes place during theatrical moments. In your estimation what is the most theatrical moment in BFE and what happens during that moment which is so important to the outcome of the play? Personally I think the most theatrical moment happened to be towards the end, when she comes back home and reveals that it wasn't The Man who hurt her eyes, but rather she decided to get the cosmetic surgery. Rather ironic if you think since it was her who tried to hurt The Man's eyes to begin with.
7. Provide at least three examples of images in BFE. How does the title of the play help us understand the images in the play? (Remember Ball says that, “An image is the use of something we know that tells us something we don’t know.” He goes on to say that images invoke and expand, rather than define and limit.”)
Disfigurement: This is seen in two very different lights in the play - through cosmetic surgery and as The Man carves "UGLY" into Panny
Trust: trust moves on thin ice in this play. For starters, Hugo and Panny's relationship is completely built on lies even though Hugo explains how he doesn't have anything to hide. Trust is also seen with The Man. Panny is too vulnerable and innocent to realize The Man is a possible threat. She trusts him until it's too late
The image of her pushing into his eyes: Shows how society has tried to help and be involved, but proves to have flaws in the system as Panny isn’t able to get away (and in some ways only makes him more upset) when it’s applied to a real world application. In relation to the title, this may be an expression of her frustration in society and its flaws as she is stuck in the middle of nowhere and society/school have given her little advice.
8. Ordinarily, there are many themes in most plays. List the themes in BFE.
Change: There’s physical change and there’s mental/emotional. The most obvious for physical was how the mom gives her plastic surgery for her birthday.
Repetition: during her blurbs of phrases, she’ll repeat terminology at the beginning and the end and she uses psychological terms to suggest things.
Communication: It’s interesting that she forms a solid and decent relationship with Hugo, yet she only gets to this bond because they talk through the phone (never face to face). Communication is also seen in another form: through the letters that Panny and her penpal send to one another.
9. Most American plays have something to do with family and/or family relationships. What does family have to do with BFE? Is family redefined in BFE and if so, in what ways? Everyone has their own individual relationships that are a bit unstable in their own ways. Lefty and Eevee, Hugo and Panny, and the Pizza Guy/The Captain and Panny’s mother, Isabel.
The beginning of the play actually starts with Panny, our main character - a 14 year old Asian-American - , speaking directly to the audience as she sets the scene of what has been going on in her area: several blonde girls have been taken to the desert and molested and/or killed by an unknown man. Panny talks about this as they are people from her high school, specifically the popular, pretty girls.
2. What is the intrusion that causes the stasis to be broken and the dramatic action to develop, often at an increasingly rapid pace, to the end of the play?
When Panny first makes conversation with Hugo because this is where we establish a change in Panny’s domenor. She enjoys talking to Hugo, unlike how she speaks with her pen pal or her mother. Besides, if it weren’t for Hugo, Panny may have never run into The Man that day.
3. Why do the events of the play take place at this particular time and place? In other words, what is the unique factor that is out of the ordinary that causes a turn of events to take place?
This is the day Panny tells the true story of what happened to her with The Man and the events and people she met leading up to it. As she lists in the beginning, lots of people assumed different things that may have happened that night, but this is the correct version.
4. State the dramatic question or questions that must be answered by the end of the play? (Ordinarily, the dramatic question shares a close connection with the intrusion.)
What exactly is going to happen to Panny? What are her end thoughts on her family, everyone’s reaction to the event, and how has, if any, her character changed from the start?
5. Use Panny, Isabelle, or Lefty to answer the questions concerning character. Ball says, a character is revealed by what he/she does, that is the dramatic actions that are taken. Examine what the character wants (NOTE: In Trifles the wants of Ms. Hale change as the play progresses). The wants of a character often encounter obstacles that get in the way of achieving those wants. Ball says there are 4 kinds of obstacles that frustrate the wants of a character.
6. The most important information in most plays takes place during theatrical moments. In your estimation what is the most theatrical moment in BFE and what happens during that moment which is so important to the outcome of the play?
Personally I think the most theatrical moment happened to be towards the end, when she comes back home and reveals that it wasn't The Man who hurt her eyes, but rather she decided to get the cosmetic surgery. Rather ironic if you think since it was her who tried to hurt The Man's eyes to begin with.
7. Provide at least three examples of images in BFE. How does the title of the play help us understand the images in the play? (Remember Ball says that, “An image is the use of something we know that tells us something we don’t know.” He goes on to say that images invoke and expand, rather than define and limit.”)
8. Ordinarily, there are many themes in most plays. List the themes in BFE.
9. Most American plays have something to do with family and/or family relationships. What does family have to do with BFE? Is family redefined in BFE and if so, in what ways?
Everyone has their own individual relationships that are a bit unstable in their own ways. Lefty and Eevee, Hugo and Panny, and the Pizza Guy/The Captain and Panny’s mother, Isabel.